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Careers of Doctorate Holders (CDH) Project

SEMINAR – WORKSHOP ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION INDICATORSPhnom Penh, Cambodia

18-20 Nov 2008

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UIS approach to Human Resources statistics: CDH project

• Methodology developed “from the scratch” together with OECD & Eurostat.

• Aimed both at developed and developing countries

• With participation from experts from both developed and developing countries

• Now being piloted

• Promoting the methodology by encouraging developing countries to conduct such surveys and produce cross-nationally comparable statistics on careers of doctorate holders

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Relevance of the CDH project

• World economy is increasingly based on knowledge and information.

• Knowledge is now recognised as the driver of productivity and economic growth.

• As a result, there is a new focus on the crucial role of highly qualified individuals who represent a key to the production, application and transmission of knowledge.

• Statistics on the global trends in human resources for Science and Technology (HRST) are very week.

• The quality and comparability of international data on migration is particularly weak.

• Diversity of data collection methods hinders international comparability, and does not provide information on career paths and mobility patterns.

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Background and Process

Background: ‘Brain drain’ or loss of skilled personnel identified as priority by UIS

and UNESCO Paris OECD and EU are interested in

skills loss from developing countries Moves from university to industry

US NSF also interested in changing US patterns of academic recruitment

Process: To meet the users demands UIS, OECD & Eurostat launched a project

on “Statistics on the Careers of Doctorate Holders”. Each organization took responsibility for issues appropriate to their

mandate. Expertise and resources are shared across the three partners.

Expert group: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, Uganda, the United States.

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Objectives and Task forces

Objectives: To design an internationally comparable tool for tracking the

careers of doctorates holders and highly qualified people in different countries.

To pilot tests of this instrument in volunteer countries. to collect and exchange information on the career paths of

holders of doctorates from existing data sources and the new survey tool.

Task forces: Production of output tabulations, and development of common

definitions (led by OECD and Canada) Drafting of methodological guidelines (led by Eurostat and

Portugal). Development of a model survey with a supporting methodology

(led by UIS).

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Output tabulation program

• Conceived to be used by countries when delivering the requested data to the international organizations;

• Consists of several tables organized in seven broad groups: personal characteristics, educational history, work history, scientific output, perception of current work situation, international mobility retrospective and future plans.

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• Doctorate;

• Citizenship and residential status;

• Recent doctorate recipients;

• Employed persons;

• Unemployed and inactive persons;

• Researcher;

• Temporary/permanent employment, full-time and part-time employment, etc.

• Postdoc

Definitions

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Methodological guidelines

• Define and structure the target population

• Describe the sources for building sampling frames

• Present some aspects of data collection, data processing and results estimation.

• Should be seen as an orientation for countries that plan to launch a CDH survey as well as a tool to improve and align their existing national surveys to an international standard.

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Target population

Consists of individuals fulfilling the following criteria:

• having an education at ISCED 6 level (doctorates) obtained anywhere in the world, and

• being resident (permanent or non-permanent) within the national borders of the surveying country.

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Target population structure • Target population, residents in country X (the surveying country)

that are:

A. Citizens of country X with doctorate awarded within country X

B. Citizens of foreign countries with doctorate awarded in country X

C. Citizens of country X with doctorate awarded abroad

D. Citizens of foreign countries with doctorate awarded abroad

• Non-target population, residents outside country X that are:

E. Citizens of country X, with doctorate awarded within country X that have left country X

F. Citizens of foreign countries, with doctorate awarded in country X that have left country X

• What to do with doctorates abroad

- Groups E and F are usually taken into consideration in the reporting countries where these doctorate holders are resident.

- If countries are able to construct a sample frame, and reach group E, the survey could also be extended to this group, even if countries are not requested to report information to the international organizations on them.

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Sources for constructing sampling frames

• National education registers

• Universities

• International and national foundations

• National libraries

• Population censuses

• Research institutes

• Professional organizations

• Central registers of foreigners

• Alumni organizations

• Previously conducted surveys on doctorate holders

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Survey types

• Cohorts of recent graduates:• administered on graduation and repeated every few years• simple and straightforward, but• limited coverage of the target population

• Snapshot surveys (cross-sectional retrospective sample of all doctorates):

• one time, administered on an occasional basis • more appropriate tool for collection of information related to the

entire target population • covers all cohorts at the same time• quickly provides information on the mobility and career

development of doctorate holders

• Should not be seen as mutually excluding but rather complementary

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Instruments (developed by UIS)

• Core model questionnaire containing “core questions” which would provide data to fill in the output tabulations. The questionnaire will be accompanied with a manual comprising the definitions and other guidelines.

• CDH questions data base comprises the set of questions among which the suitable questions can be chosen and applied by countries when designing CDH surveys. CDH data base will be web-based and openly accessible.

• The core model questionnaire is mainly foreseen for countries which do not have CDH type surveys yet.

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The following existing CDH questionnaires were used:

• USA (SED and SDR),

• Canada (SED),

• Switzerland (Survey of Tertiary Graduates plus Doctorates surveyed the year after they received their degree),

• Portugal (Survey of former PhD Scholarships receivers concerning their professional situation),

• India (Pilot study on the Career Profile and Professional Achievements of Doctorates in science from the Selected Central Universities/Institutions),

• Ukraine (Structure of database of Doctorate Holders in Ukraine)

Construction of Core model Questionnaire

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Modules

• Doctoral Education (EDU)

• Recent graduates (REC)

• POSTDOCS (POS)

• Employment situation (EMP)

• Career-related experience and scientific productivity (CAR)

• International mobility (MOB)

• Personal characteristics (PER)

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Information on educational history of doctorates holders, such as:

• institution

• field of science

• duration

• sources of financial support

• country of previous degrees

Doctoral Education

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• Data on the holders of doctorate who received their degree in the last 2 years.

• Provides a complete educational history, including names and locations of secondary and each postsecondary institution, dates of attendance, field of study, and date of degrees.

• Enquires about the time elapsed before obtaining first CAREER PATH JOB .

Recent graduates

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• Would your principal job be considered a POSTDOC position in your country of residence? (PROBLEM WITH DEFINITION)

• Title, Field of S&T, total length of POSTDOC

• Reasons for taking this POSTDOC

• Activities involved in POSTDOC (Research, teaching, other)

• Main source of financial support

POSTDOCS

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• Detailed information on employment status, working hours, principal employer, sector and type of employment (postdoc, temporary or permanent employment, part-time or full-time job ), annual earnings, job-satisfaction.

• Relationship of job & doctorate degree.

• Retrospective career history within ten past years (including occupation, dates, years of experience, and reasons for leaving position).

• “multi-job” pattern is foreseen.

• Section for unemployed and inactive.

Employment situation

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• Information on mobility patterns, including inflows (group D) and outflows (group C).

• Enables to distinguish temporary mobility from permanent mobility as well as to identify the reasons for departure and return.

• Provides data on intentions to move out of the country within the next year including the destination planned.

• Enquires about linkages with country of origin.

International mobility

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• Data on scientific output and experience, as well as teaching.

• Section for researchers, including reasons for taking up research careers.

• Enquires about international cooperation activities.

Career-related experience and scientific productivity

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• Marital status

• Number of dependents

• Place of birth, date of birth, citizenship status (in order to better deal with dual nationality as well) and residential status.

• Contact information

Personal characteristics

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Way forward

• CDH surveys are being carried out in the EU, AU, US.

• The CDH kit has been published as a joint publication with OECD & Eurostat.

• An international database is being constructed.

• Involve more developing countries!

• Presentation of results:International Conference on CDH, Brussels, 1 December 2008

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Thank you!

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UNESCO Institute for StatisticsC.P. 6128 Succursale Centre-ville, Montreal, Quebec, H3C 3J7,Canada.

TP: (1 514) 343-6880Fax: (1 514) 343-6872